Linbeymusol Wonderful character development!

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Geraldine The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Hot 888 Mama . . . everyone seems to be wearing masks of everyone else's faces. It's like these 1930s people traveled in time to view FACE\OFF and POINT BREAK, and then returned with a Biotech 3D printer. One guy impersonates half a dozen short, medium, and tall dudes varying by at least a foot in height. (Evidently, folks were easily-fooled simpletons back then, which is why their Depression was so Great.) These 1930s dandies also were very Wishy-Washy, never sticking to their original choice of transportation. A guy with train tickets suddenly climbs up a rope ladder into a plane; three people already IN a plane decide to jump out and walk; another joker is out for a joy-ride in his car, before he just sends it careening along--driver-less, at full speed--in order to hop a train (leaving the empty Packard to fend for itself). A little later the same clown repeats this shenanigan with a motorcycle. With John Wayne in the cast here, I was waiting for him to hop out of a plane on horseback, but no such luck. Based on this 79-minute "feature condensation," I see no reason to plod along for three more hours on the HURRICANE EXPRESS.

John W Chance I own and have watched the Alpha Video feature version of the serial. The problem with feature versions of serials is that they leave out so much; a lot of them jump too fast leaving out details behind certain dialog or sequences, which makes them hard to follow; or else the back and forth nature of the action seems pointless and tedious. There are many, many examples of this such as "Planet Outlaws" the feature version of "Buck Rogers" (1939) "The Phantom Empire," (1935) "Dick Tracy Vs. Crime Inc." (1941) among many.The exceptions are "Rocketship" (1936) the excellent shortened first "Flash Gordon" serial and "The Lost Jungle" (1934), which is actually a real improvement over and practically a different film from the serial it came from.This one, however, is in the category of something you watch while you're doing something else. Although John Wayne has a few good lines, and seems to do a lot of the action stunts himself, the feature version really points up the weak nature of the story. The bad guys (including the underutilized Charles King) seem to want to spend all their time trying to recover some gold stolen from a train, the Hurricane Express.Watching this you think, don't these evil villains have anything better (or since they are villains, worse) to do? Well, while watching it, you realize that you do, but you may not have anything else planned. So let me give you some tips for things you could be doing while playing this video: Organize all the clothes in your closet. Go thru the week's mail and throw away the junk. Delete unnecessary e-mails. Pay your bills. Organize your video collection-- I do mine chronologically, but maybe you do yours alphabetically. File important papers. Lie on your bed and read something while you listen to the movie. Good luck! I'm sure you'll be able to think of something worthwhile to do while watching this version of "The Hurricane Express."

counterrevolutionary The heroine turns out to have jumped out of the car before it went over the cliff? OK, that's pretty standard. But why can we still see her (actually, a dummy representing her) in the car as it careens down the hillside? Even more fun are those chapters where they simply substitute new footage showing something completely different than we saw in the previous chapter. My favorite is the one at the end of Chapter 8/beginning of Chapter 9. They simply filmed two completely different events, showed one at the end of 8 and the other at the beginning of 9.Also, I want one of those magic masks which not only perfectly simulate someone else's face, but also his voice, height, and build. I'll take the Young John Wayne model.It's always fun to watch stuff like this (even though it may be the worst thing the Duke ever did) and try to imagine what contemporary audiences would have been thinking. Did any of them realize that this big stiff young guy would one day become not just the biggest star in Hollywood, but a cultural icon? I doubt it.

bsmith5552 "The Hurricane Express" was one of three serials that John Wayne made for Nat Levine and Mascot Pictures after leaving Columbia Pictures following a run-in with mogul Harry Cohn over the affections of a young starlet.The Mascot serials were always fast paced and full of action and this one is no exception. The story revolves around a mysterious character named "The Wrecker" who is bent on destroying the L & R Railroad. He causes the wreck of the Hurricane Express in which engineer Jim Baker (J. Farrell MacDonald) is killed. His son Larry (Wayne), an airline pilot vows to avenge his father's death. And that's basically it.Wayne goes through the rest of the serial trying to identify "The Wrecker" and bring him to justice. Is the villain Edwards (Tully Marshall), the General Manager of the railroad; Stevens (Conway Tearle) the railroad attorney; Walter Grey (Lloyd Whitlock) the head of the airline; Stratton (Edmund Breese) an escaped convict who claims to have been set up by the railroad; Jordan (Matthew Betz) an engineer who was fired and has vowed revenge or is it Carlson (Alan Bridge) a station agent?Aiding Baker is the lovely Gloria Martin (Shirley Grey) who turns out to be Stratton's daughter. Appearing as "The Wrecker's" henchmen are Ernie Adams, Charlie King, Glenn Strange and Al Ferguson. Complicating matters is the fact that "The Wrecker" can impersonate anybody by donning a life like mask of that person. Never mind that he can also apparently assume their physical characteristics and clothing as well.After 12 chapters, a number of false leads and red herrings "The Wrecker" turns out to be.......wait, no, no...Bam! Bam!..aaaargh!John Wayne was quite young and very athletic at the time this serial was made and can be seen clearly performing many of his own stunts. The winsome Grey was also at Columbia at the same time as Wayne and even appeared in a picture or two with him. I wonder..hmmmm.These old serials also provide a snapshot of the times. I particularly enjoyed seeing the old cars, trains and planes. A bit dated but a nevertheless enjoyable piece of nostalgia.